The Democrats' online billion-dollar fundraising machine just locked its last remaining lawyer out of his office and stripped him of his email.
That's what panic looks like.
And now we know exactly what they're panicking about.
ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones Told Congress Its Foreign Donor Screens Were Airtight
ActBlue is the Democratic Party's dominant online fundraising platform – the machine that processed $3.8 billion for Democratic politicians and causes in the 2024 election cycle alone.
Republican-led House committees have been investigating it for over a year, pressing for answers on whether foreign nationals illegally funneled money through the platform into American elections.
ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones told those congressional investigators in 2023 that ActBlue had built "multilayered" safeguards to block illegal foreign donations.
Passport numbers required. Every box checked. Nothing to worry about.
Her own law firm called that false.
Covington & Burling reviewed ActBlue's actual practices in early 2025 and sent back two memos that should terrify every senior official at that organization.
Donors paying through Apple Pay, Venmo, or PayPal – none of them were asked for passport numbers.
Not a glitch. Not an accident. A gap that existed while Wallace-Jones was assuring Congress everything was locked down.
Covington's conclusion was blunt: this "presents a substantial risk for ActBlue."
Then they went further.
Because ActBlue's staff "was aware that its system was not as robust as necessary," Covington warned the violations could be classified as "knowing and willful" – the legal standard that hands the Justice Department jurisdiction for a criminal prosecution.
Not just a fine from the FEC.
Potential prison time.
Seven Executives Resigned After Covington and Burling Warned of Criminal Exposure
When Covington finished their review, they didn't just send memos.
They got on a video call with ActBlue's leadership and told Wallace-Jones directly: get your own personal attorney.
Seven senior officials resigned within weeks.
That includes Aaron Ting, ActBlue's former in-house attorney, who put his reason in writing.
He resigned because of the platform's representations to Congress in the 2023 letter – the same letter Covington flagged as potentially criminal.
The last remaining lawyer in ActBlue's general counsel office was stripped of his email access and sent on leave after making allegations of internal retaliation.
ActBlue's own union told leadership that employees had no clear direction on how to proceed with their work in the legal team's absence.
The people who knew the most about ActBlue's legal exposure cleared out first.
ActBlues Own Data Showed 237 Foreign Donations in 30 Days and Leadership Called It Fine
Kimberly Peeler-Allen, ActBlue's chairwoman, went to the New York Times with her defense.
Only less than 1 percent of 2024 contributions showed signs of foreign origin, she said.
She said it like it was reassuring.
One percent of $3.8 billion is $38 million – more money than most Senate campaigns raise in total.
That's just what ActBlue detected.
Congressional investigators found the platform loosened its fraud standards twice during 2024 – internal documents show the policy changes allowed between 14 and 28 additional fraudulent contributions per month to slip through.
Staff were told to look for reasons to accept contributions.
In a single 30-day window during September and October 2024, ActBlue flagged 237 separate donations from foreign IP addresses using domestic prepaid cards.
Countries on their internal watch list included Brazil, Colombia, India, Iraq, the Philippines, and Saudi Arabia.
They were watching donations come in from those countries – and processing them anyway.
The DOJ Investigation Trump Ordered Is Already Underway and the Legal Standard Is Criminal
Democrats built an entire political movement on foreign election interference.
Now their top fundraising CEO sent Congress a letter describing safeguards that her lawyers confirmed weren't being followed – and her staff says she knew it.
Under federal law, you don't have to be under oath to commit a crime when you mislead Congress.
Section 1001 of Title 18 makes it a felony to knowingly and willfully give false statements to Congress, sworn or unsworn.
The maximum sentence is five years in prison.
Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen went to prison for it.
The standard Covington flagged – "knowing and willful" – is precisely the standard prosecutors use to push FEC violations into criminal referrals at the Justice Department.
The DOJ investigation Trump ordered in April 2025 is already underway.
ActBlue fired Covington after the firm issued its warnings, then posted a statement calling the New York Times reporting a politically motivated distraction.
Every official who read those memos now has a problem.
And every executive who walked out took their knowledge with them – and prosecutors love witnesses who left because of what they saw.
The party that built its brand on no one is above the law just watched its own money machine do exactly what they spent years accusing everyone else of doing.
Regina Wallace-Jones needs that personal attorney.
Sources:
- Andrew Kerr, "Substantial Risk: Democratic Fundraising Juggernaut ActBlue May Have Misled Congress About Vetting Foreign Donations, Its Own Attorneys Warned," Washington Free Beacon, April 2, 2026.
- "Fraud on ActBlue: New Report Details Potential Illegal Activity on the Democrat Platform," House Judiciary Committee Republicans, April 2, 2025.
- "ActBlue Adopted 'More Lenient' Donation Standards, Received Foreign Money During 2024 Election Cycle," Just the News, April 2, 2025.
- "ActBlue Took Foreign-Linked Money, Softened Fraud Rules, and Told Congress It Was Under Control," RedState, April 2, 2026.
- Ken Paxton, "Investigation Into ActBlue By Attorney General Ken Paxton Uncovers Large Number of Suspicious Donations Made Through Obscured Identities and Untraceable Means," Texas Office of the Attorney General, October 2024.
- Chairman Steil, "Chairman Steil Releases Findings from Subpoena of ActBlue," House Administration Committee, December 2024.
